Eastminster Presbytery

E-News
for the Week of February 13, 2019
For correspondence mailing, please use the appropriate mailing address:
General Presbyter & Stated Clerk
1201 E Market St #427
Akron, OH
479.461.4042
Business Administrator
P.O. Box 14439
Poland, OH 44514
330.505.2167
Business Hours: Tuesday-Friday 9am-3pm
Presbytery Calendar at a Glance

  • PCUSA Statistical Reporting deadline, February 14th
  • Eastminster's Directory Update and All Saints Celebration reporting deadline, February 15th
  • Ministers' Communion Service, February 20th, Firestone Park Church, 11:30 p.m.
  • West Area Clergy Lunch, February 27th, Panera, Stow, 1:00 p.m.
SAVE THE DATE!

Stated Meeting of Eastminster Presbytery
March 5, 2019

1:45 p.m. Pre-Presbytery Presentation: Solar Under the Sun by TE Tom Ulrich
2:30 p.m. Registration
3:00 p.m. Meeting Call


Dinner cost is $8.00

Presbytery Clergy, Officers, and Commissioners who are unable to attend the meeting
Please notify Eastminster >>>> HERE

The E-Packet will be available for download on the Presbytery web page on Tuesday, February 19, and in our next week's E-news!

We are Getting CLOSE!

The countdown is officially underway with our February 14 ( tomorrow! ) deadline fast approaching for our congregations to submit their online 2018 statistics to PCUSA!

We are anxiously awaiting for our General Presbyter and Stated Clerk to do her "happy dance" on the floor at the March Presbytery meeting... but we need the help of ALL our congregations! So far we have 34 of our 44 churches who have completed their reporting (you all rock!) That means we only have 10 more congregations to go!

The link below will direct you to the PCUSA's Statistical Reporting and Frequently asked Questions page. The first link will take you to the log in page for statistical reporting. If you continue to scroll down the page, you will find answers to common questions to assist you in your reporting. Questions regarding login information or statistical reporting can be emailed to cathy@eastminsterpresbytery.org .


All Saints Remembrance

We will celebrate the saints of our congregations at the March Presbytery Meeting since our last remembrance which was in March 2018. Please click on the link below to report the elders from your congregation who have joined the church triumphant between March 2018 and today. You may also visit our Resources page at eastminsterpresbytery.org for a downloadable form (Celebration of Saints) and mail it to:
Eastminster Presbytery
P.O. Box 14439
Poland, OH 44514

If there are no elders to report, please indicate so on the form and submit as well. It is helpful to hear back from all the congregations to be sure that we include all the names. Deadline to submit a report is February 15, 2019.
Ministers' Communion Service

There will be a Ministers' Communion service on Wednesday, February 20, 2019 , in the sanctuary of Firestone Park Presbyterian Church, 275 S. Firestone Bldv, Akron , for all our minister members and CREs. We invite you to join us for a time of worship, communion and fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. The service will begin at 11:30 a.m. followed by lunch on your own at the Waterloo Restaurant in Akron. This is a great opportunity to gather as a community with colleagues in Eastminster! To help with planning, please click on the link to confirm that you will be attending!
Presbytery Directory Update Form

We are working on the 2019 Presbytery directory and need to hear from your congregation! If you have not submitted an online update form or mailed one to Eastminster, please do so ASAP. We will post the 2019 online Directory on our web page, eastminsterpresbytery.org , in March. As a reminder, the directory is posted on the Members tab, which is secured and password protected. If you need the password, please email Diane .
Follow up of Pastors' Retreat


For those who unfortunately missed the Pastors' Retreat last month, the retreat was facilitated by Rev. Lisa Hickman where she encouraged pastors to embrace the power of the resurrected Christ to combat this-world issues such as unemployment, drug abuse and declining communities. This youtube video Is from a Youngstown TED talk and it speaks about the joys and struggles of choosing to live in a rustbelt community like Youngstown. Very encouraging. Thank you Rev. Adam Rodgers, Westminster (Boardman) for sharing with Eastminster.
 
Attention! Attention! Attention!

Hugh and Charlotte Gunn Holy Land Grant Fund . Eastminster Presbytery administers a grant fund which provides for ministers, with at least one year of experience, up to $5,000 of support for a trip to the Holy Land. To apply for this grant, named in honor of Hugh and Charlotte Gunn, an applicant must fill out an application which is posted on the Presbytery’s web site. The grant will be awarded by a grant committee made up of members of the family of Hugh and Charlotte Gunn. If you have questions about the grant, please contact John Pogue, Chair of the Administrative Ministry Committee at Jpogue@hhmlaw.com .
LAST CALL !

From PCUSA Mission  LOUISVILLE – The  Presbyterian Planning Calendar , a beloved publication of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is seeking photo submissions from congregations, mid councils, camps, conference centers and education centers for use in its 2019–2020 edition. Focusing on congregational vitality, fighting poverty, dismantling racism and other mission activities, the request for images also asks, “Who are the unsung heroes of your congregation?” The deadline for submissions is Feb. 14, 2019. Photos should be submitted online using a  form found   here . If you have questions or need to submit materials in a different way, please contact the planning calendar manager, Jackie Carter, by email at  jackie.carter@pcusa.org  or by phone at 502-569-5772. More details can be found by visiting >>>>>  presbyterianmission.org

A New Program!!

Healthy Pastors Healthy Congregations is now being offered for pastors serving in the PC (USA) by the Board of Pensions. This program brings together pastors and congregational leadership to work toward financial sustainability by providing financial education, consultation, and theological reflection to help all build a brighter future financial together. A one-time grant of up to $10,000 is available to eligible pastors after the pastor and congregational leaders have completed an educational seminar, and the pastor has completed online educational modules, as well as financial counseling through Ernst and Young. The program is paid for by the Board of Pensions and a Lilly Grant. The grant can be used for debt reduction or for retirement savings. For more details please go to www.pensions.org  and look under the heading “Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations” to check the eligibility requirements for this program.
The Rev. Dr. Douglas Portz, Senior Church Consultant for the Board of Pensions will conduct a seminar (one of the required components of the program) within the bounds of the presbytery in the near future. Time and place to be announced depending upon which pastors and congregations sign up. Pastors and key leadership interested in this program are welcome to attend. Please feel free to contact Dportz@pensions.org if you have questions.

If you are interested please call the Eastminster Presbytery office at   (330) 505-2167  if you want to attend the seminar when Doug Portz is in your presbytery. Pastors are required to bring with them key congregational leaders (e.g. a number of elders of session, and/or members of the Personnel Committee, etc.) to the seminar.  
From Presbyterian Women

Mary Church Terrell–educator, political activist,
and first president of the National Association of
Colored Women.
Library of Congress





Since 1976, African American History Month (also known as Black History Month) has been observed each February in the United States.​

How will you observe this celebration?

Start broadly, learning about African American History Month  through the documents, photos, audio and video files, and collections compiled by the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.​

The 2019 theme for African American History Month is “Black Migrations.” Learn more about this theme from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History  (ASALH). The forced migration of 12 million Africans in the slave trade is a historical reality many are aware of, but this year’s theme invites us to focus on migration from the 20th century onward.
Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration * explores the journey of six million African Americans out of the southern U.S. to the northeast, mid-west and western U.S. She includes broad realities of the Jim Crow laws and pervasive discrimination and violence, but also tells the story of the Great Migration (1916–1970) by focusing on three individuals (with different socioeconomic experiences) and their journeys (to three different parts of the U.S.). Her amazing blend of storytelling and historical context has garnered a number of awards for this book, and it will doubtlessly become a classic for understanding race in the U.S. For a shorter introduction, try Isabel Wilkerson’s article for the Smithsonian , “The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration , " which highlights how the Great Migration shaped the lives of actor James Earl Jones, writer Zora Neale Hurston, baseball great Jackie Robinson and others.
The Great Migration allows us to look at black migration with a historical perspective and clarity. But black migration is still very much a reality, so the ASALH suggests looking at more recent migration “from spatial and social perspectives, with attention to ‘new’ African Americans because of the burgeoning African and Caribbean population in the U.S.; northern African Americans’ return to the south; racial suburbanization; inner-city hyper-ghettoization; health and environment; civil rights and protest activism; electoral politics; mass incarceration; and dynamic cultural production.”
Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) international placements open until March 1 st ! 
APPLY  to a transformational year of service in  South Korea, Zambia, Columbia, Scotland, Peru & the Philippines by March 1 st  - or encourage young adults (ages 19-30) you know to consider! More info online at  youngadultvolunteers.org . National sites open until June 1 st .
Presbytery Staff & Officers: